Letter from Loretta Hill

February 2nd Hi Fiona, I can’t believe it’s February already. The kids are back at school and I can breathe again. The January school holidays were very hectic, also due to the fact that my new book, “The Maxwell Sisters” just came out. I’m really excited about this story. This book is as much about family as it is about falling in love. The novel centres around three estranged sisters, Phoebe, Tash and Eve. The eldest Tash, is on the brink of divorce, the middle sister Eve, is single and heart broken and the youngest Phoebe, appears to be in the happiest part of her life. She’s engaged to be married to the man of her dreams. The story begins when she decides to get married at their childhood home, Tawny Brooks Winery, situated in the heart of the Margaret River Wine region – one of my favourite places on earth. Up until this point,

I’ve been a little quiet lately, but there is a good reason for that. Harvest. Now last year I spent harvest writing The Sunnyvale Girls and by the time I came up for air I had one ride in the truck with dad and then harvest was finished. A very weird feeling I must say….felt like I’d missed a whole chunck of life. But not this year, this year some friends asked if I would drive their second header. I jumped at the chance as they were happy for me to work between school hours. Perfect. It probably wasn’t meant to last long but due to weather, good yield and breakdowns we are still harvesting. Not that I’m complaining as I’m loving it. I have a beautiful big yellow New Holland header called Holly and we have been carving up the paddocks, collecting canola, barley and wheat. Going to work each day is a joy.

It was an Author Talk tour of epic proportions. One blue Holden Commodore with a trailer full of books travelling over 2,400 kilometres across the state of WA. Inside this tardis like vehicle were authors Fiona Palmer (driver) and Rachael Johns (navigator – with the help of WhereIs and our Wog Boy guide). We set off in September to Albany for a talk at the library and were interviewed by famous local Jon Doust. It was a belly laugh talk with Jon digging deep and asking the tricky questions. Then we headed to Kojonup, Rach’s old stomping ground and first country home, also where Jilted was set. It was our first night of talking together, sharing our journeys to publication and the stories behind our new books. Next, we travelled to Busselton for a lunchtime library talk, catching up with the Dymocks girls. And Karen, from the Library,

That’s right, a trip. To celebrate the release of The Sunnyvale Girls go to www.penguin.com.au/competitions submit a review and you could win a trip for two to Italy. (Sadly if you are my friends or family, you can’t enter. Depressing, I know!) I’m so excited about this competition as this time last year I was in Italy researching for this book! You can find my previous blog posts on my website where I write about my amazing trip. (there are lots of photo’s!) Also in a few weeks I’m off on a national tour. I’d love to meet you and have a chance to tell you about this story, so if you can make one of these events then please come along. 🙂 Details here. To keep up with all these details and more please

Competition now closed! I had a huge response to this competition but there could only be one….. Congratulations to Joanna Kitto!!!! She has been notified and is one happy chick. 🙂 Thank you all for taking the time to enter. I’m now off on my week long WA tour with Rach Johns and this Wednesday is when The Sunnyvale Girls is released!! So keep a look out in your local shops. 🙂 Then in October I take off on my National tour. SOOOO excited! Tour details. Looking forward to visiting SA, QLD and VIC. ******* To celebrate the release of my 6th book on the 26th of September I am running a competition. The biggest one yet! How would you like to win ALL 6 books! That’s right. Everything you see here will be yours if you’re the lucky winner. Four stubby holders, signed bookmarks and six signed

I get the Outback Magazine, which arrives by post, and it’s always an interesting read and the rural photo’s are some of the best. So it was very exciting to be included in the latest issue. It’s wonderful to have this exposure, not just for my book The Outback Heart but for what inspired it in the first place. Josh’s story. To be able to help spread the word on organ donation through my writing has been wonderful and the feedback is brilliant. I’m proud to say I’ve just donated $3,500 to Transplant Australia through the sales of this book. Which I couldn’t do without you, the readers. Thank you! 🙂 The lovely Kerry came all the way to Pingaring to write this story for Outback. She spent a few days with me while we got some photo’s and met up with Colin and Ronnie. (It was warm as you can see by my

I have Fiona Lowe, author of 26 books, on my blog! (Yes, I dream of gettting to that number, I’m working on it!) I met Fi many years ago now (she’s another one of those amazingly friendly and supportive RWA ladies) and have attended a few of her sessions on writing. One was in Perth back in 2010. I always get so much from Fi’s lectures and as a writer I think you can never stop learning or working on your craft. (Especially me, who needs reminding quite often!) Fiona has some great tips on writing here. My favourite character of Fi’s is Emily Tippet. Once you read about her, you’ll know why. 🙂 Oh and Fiona is also a Ruby (Romance Writers of Australia) and a RITA (Romance Writers of America) winner. Which is HUGE in the romance circle. (Gosh it would be awesome just to win one of these awards! And she has both!) Over to you Fi…… *****

I’m very excited to announce the dates for our RuRo tour in WA this coming September. Both myself and Rachael Johns will be touring for a week and we will have both our new books, The Sunnyvale Girls and Outback Ghost with us. (They are released in October.) We start off in Albany on Thursday the 18th September, Kojonup Monday 22nd night event, Capel Tuesday 23rd night event, Bunbury Wednesday 24th 10am event, Kalamunda Wednesday 24th night event, Dongara Thursday 25th 5.30 – 7pm event, Kalannie Friday 26th lunch event, Toodyay Friday 26th night event, Gosnells Saturday 27th 10.30am event. Then we head to the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre October 22nd Wednesday night event, Merredin Thursday 23rd October. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted just reading that lol. Rach and I are so excited to be doing this together because it really makes a good event when you can go and see

I have another wonderful lady answering my blog questions today, Jenn J McLeod! I met Jenn through the RWA Conferences and so it’s been amazing to see her grow and succeed with her novels. (In April her second book Simmering Season was released.) Now lets find out a bit more about Jenn…. If you could be an animal, what would you be? Dog Dog Dog Dog Dog. But only if I am MY dog. No surprise that my novels have lots of dogs in them. Do your friends or enemies ever find themselves in your books? Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmmmmm, dah, dah, dah. Oh, sorry, Fee, what was the question? If you were not a writer, what would you be? Beyoncé! What drives you insane about the writing process? Nothing. I love every aspect about the writing process. If you didn’t love this biz – all its fussiness and facets – you wouldn’t be

Finally it’s here, the 1st May. Release Day! The Recruit has been fun to write and it’s been my own enjoyable escape. I love writing about Jaz, and wish I could be her. I hope readers try my new path, slightly different from a rural romance but none the less I’m sure you can still pick my voice/writing style. (I’m still writitng Rural books too!! Don’t worry.) The Recruit is only in ebook form but I dream it will make print one day soon. 🙂 iTunes Booktopia I made a trailer for it the other day also. 🙂 Hope you like it. From one of Australia’s Queens of Romance comes the debut in a brand new YA series about secrets, strengths, and what lies beneath the surface. Jasmine Thomas may not be completely normal, but she’s a pretty typical seventeen-year-old girl. She hates the rich mean kids, loves her best friends,